Seller refused sale because I wanted to use a cashiers check

[Peasantgirl]

Ok, I guess I'm just wanting to rant for a minute here. Oh yeah, new member here, hello everybody!

I'm in the process of looking to buy my first RV ever. I found one on Craigslist in a town about 90 minutes away. Seller insisted on meeting in the evening, after 5pm. I drove all the way down there, inspected it, liked what I saw, told him I wanted to buy it. Explained that I'd have to wait for the bank to open the next day - sorry, dude, I don't just walk around with $6k in my pocket, and you can't withdraw that much from an ATM in one day. I think $5k is the limit? But I digress.

My bank (credit union, actually) had pre-approved me for a personal loan which was how I was planning to pay for it, but they didn't want to just disburse the funds to my account, they wanted to know what it was being spent on. They wanted an invoice or something to show where the money was going, and then they would make out a cashier's check directly to the seller. I don't know the reason for this policy but it is what it is. They made me do the same thing when I bought a storage building. It's a PITA but only for me, not the seller.

Anyway, long story short, I asked the seller if he could make out a bill of sale - UNSIGNED, so he wasn't committing to anything - which he sorta did, he scratched out the year and model and sale price on a scrap of paper. Not exactly a bill of sale but whatever.

Emailed him the next morning to let him know I was going to the credit union that morning to get the cashier's check, and he wrote back to say that he wouldn't accept a CC because it was a scam. Sigh.

I wasn't wiring him anything. I wasn't using a "courier". I wasn't asking him to wire me anything back. I wasn't asking for his bank account info. I was using the local frikkin credit union.

I literally would have taken the guy with me to the credit union to meet the loan officer but before I could suggest that, he writes to tell me that someone else is coming that day to look at it and if they had cash he was going to sell it to them. This, despite me driving NINETY minutes (one way!) to meet him the day before and telling him I wanted it. Grrr!

I emailed back that he was a *bleep* for reneging on our verbal agreement and that I wouldn't buy from him at this point even if the other person didn't want it.

Like I said, just venting here. These cashier check con artists have ruined it for everybody.

[Ski_Pro_3]

6door74 wrote:

skipro3 wrote:
I agree with Gordon; DMV problems abound. Stuff like it's not his to sell, it's his grandfather's for example, who passed away.

The ONLY way I buy a used car any more from a private party is at the DMV. We both go in, we transfer everything and I hand over the cash money. The only exception to that was when I bought a car out of Nevada. I live in California. We still went to the DMV where I had the clerk provide me a receipt for the bill of sale, showing the seller was the legal owner and that the car was titled, registered and temporarily in my name and that I could drive it to California. All it takes is getting pulled over on your way home in a car not belonging to you to drive home this point.

But I gotta make an observation here;
If you can't drum up $6,000 in cash and your bank can't trust you with a personal loan without verifying the collateral of what you are spending it on, then you probably shouldn't be buying an RV in the first place.
Most likely if I were the seller, I wouldn't have taken your check either. And if I had a cash-in-hand buyer, I would have gone that route as well. As a seller, makes no difference to me if you drove 10 miles or 1000 miles. I'm not releasing said vehicle without cash and without a sales receipt exonerating me from any liability of that vehicle once it's driven away. DMV will make sure any accident the buyer becomes involved in isn't my responsibility in any way by doing the paperwork at the time of sale.

How does the OP borrowing $6,000 to make his purchase make them any less deserving than someone financing a new trailer without a large down payment(or any at all)? Also, what control do they have over the bank and it's lending policy?

If a person can't secure $6,000 without a loan, a paltry sum for anyone wanting an RV, and then can't secure the loan in cash through a simple signature, but instead must jump through hoops as to what and why they want the money, then they probably have other credit related issues.
About the only thing my credit union needs to loan $6K is membership in good standing, your signature and MAYBE an automatic payment set-up through your pay check. (unlikely but maybe)

[Islandman]

Peasantgirl - Sounds like the seller wasn't really interested in selling his RV or he would have made efforts to work out a deal with the credit union; maybe he's been burned somewhere in his past or maybe the RV had some problems and that's why he only wanted cash and on his own terms. I've always thought that a buy/sell relationship calls for both parties to be honest and fair, including trust of each other. I wouldn't worry about it, you've learned a few things and there will be more RV's for sale now that the camping season is winding down (at least some places). Don't let this person rain on your parade, cheer up and better days are just ahead!

[Walaby]

Ed_Gee wrote:
Sigh.....so many people doe not understand cashier’s checks. The purchaser of the check has already paid for the check. The issuing bank has the funds to cover the check. All a cashier.’s check recipient has to do is call the bank to make sure the check is valid.

^^^This^^^

I sold my 66 Fairlane to an out of state person, who bought it sight unseen. He sent me a CC. I told him the car would NOT be on the transport until my bank cleared it. Went to bank next day, my bank called the bank the CC was drawn on. Yes, it was good. Truck came by next day and picked up the vehicle.

I get that CC's can be duplicated, but just take it to the bank before you release the merchandise.

Mike

Mike

[3oaks]

Peasantgirl wrote:
Good grief, I'm not even going to read the rest of these replies as some of them are jumping all over me for no reason.

I never said he owed me anything. But it's just common courtesy to sell it to the first person who offers to buy it. I didn't even haggle with him, I was gonna pay his asking price! And it's common courtesy to respect the time and gas that I'd already invested. And common courtesy to honor a verbal agreement! What part don't you understand? He didn't have a higher offer, just someone else coming to look at it. According to him anyway; for all I knew he was trying to scare me into offering more.

Whatever. I regret ever joining. I was reading the Class C FAQ and read the thread about cashier check scams and I innocently thought I was making the point that scammers have ruined it for honest people. But apparently I'm just a b*tch on my high horse so I'll just go away and leave you snotty people to yourselves.

I see you are new to this forum. How quickly you discovered this forum is just like all others when people can hide behind their anonymity on the internet. Full of armchair pundits with derogatory comments.

There are also a lot of good people willing to help others as best they can. You just have to sort them out and ignore the rest. 😉

[DiskDoctr]

Sounds like you were just not aware of how the bank wanted to proceed and how sellers may want to proceed. Your first RV, right? No worries, you'll probably learn LOTS of stuff like we all do, constantly 😉

We have bought all our RVs at a distance. The most recent was this spring when we drove around 5-6 hours ONE WAY.

We spoke to the sellers, received additional pics, etc. We asked questions, but also let the sellers know that we are serious buyers and because of the distance, wanted to make sure we weren't wasting their time or ours.

We asked about tires and brakes and hitch, since we'd be hauling it home. We asked about a local notary so we could do the transfer, and if their bank was nearby to handle the money end (ended up being both at the bank).

We also said what options for payment we had and asked what they preferred. Ended up with a Treasurer's check for the bulk and cash for the balance (negotiating room depending on what we saw when onsite).

Made sure we would have time to meet, fully inspect, then visit their bank during normal hours so their bank could call our bank and verify the check and we could leave with the proper paperwork and the RV.

It was out of state and we had to wait a few weeks on the title, but the bill of sale, etc all from the bank was good. They (the bank) were handling the payoff of the lein and securing the title, etc.

Also, how would you get it home?

If another state, where/how to get plates to transport?
If your state, make sure you have funds to title transfer, sales tax, notary, plates, etc. Separate from the purchase.

What about your tow vehicle (TV)? Is it large enough and setup properly for the RV style you are looking for?

Before we got our diesel Excursion (handles just about any travel trailer), we had a smaller TV. When we purchased our previous RV, we borrowed friend's big F250 for "overkill" so we could have all kinds of towing setup "wrong" and still be safe.

We always make sure the seller knows we are serious buyers and are prepared to buy on the spot if it is what we think it is and we like it. Closer units we may return the next day to pick it up. Longer distances, we want seller prepared so we can leave with it after all paperwork is done, the same day. Allow a few hours for paperwork and whatever. Spend the day and be finished with it all 😉

Don't let the negative comments get you down, skip over them and you'll find there are a lot of kind and helpful folks here. They aren't always the first to respond, but you'll recognize them by their posts 😉

Hope this helps a bit.

Good luck with your search!

[Ed_Gee]

Sigh.....so many people doe not understand cashier’s checks. The purchaser of the check has already paid for the check. The issuing bank has the funds to cover the check. All a cashier.’s check recipient has to do is call the bank to make sure the check is valid.

[rexlion]

Seller was right. My SIL's family lost thousands whe nthey took a cashier's check for a vehicle. I did take a CC for my KZ but only because we met at buyer's bank, they gave me the check, and I cashed it at the teller window before leaving.

[GeorgeNJ]

Your seller got cold feet, I bet his wife told him that he was crazy for agreeing to take any kind of check. You're right, you had an agreement, but he must've gotten scared of being burned with a check. You should've had the check with you at the time and did the deal at once while he was still hot to trot. He would still be sweating the check going thru, meanwhile you'd be happy as a clam with your new RV.

I buy and sell things all the time, and would never take any kind of check, not even from a relative, let alone a stranger.

I'm building a tiny house to sell and will be looking to sell it for around $40K, it will either be paid by cash or a wire transfer to my account, only.

[Peasantgirl]

So I did read a couple more replies and I see that not everybody was hateful. Thank you and I wasn't including you in my "snotty people" comment.

[Peasantgirl]

Good grief, I'm not even going to read the rest of these replies as some of them are jumping all over me for no reason.

I never said he owed me anything. But it's just common courtesy to sell it to the first person who offers to buy it. I didn't even haggle with him, I was gonna pay his asking price! And it's common courtesy to respect the time and gas that I'd already invested. And common courtesy to honor a verbal agreement! What part don't you understand? He didn't have a higher offer, just someone else coming to look at it. According to him anyway; for all I knew he was trying to scare me into offering more.

Whatever. I regret ever joining. I was reading the Class C FAQ and read the thread about cashier check scams and I innocently thought I was making the point that scammers have ruined it for honest people. But apparently I'm just a b*tch on my high horse so I'll just go away and leave you snotty people to yourselves.

[Peasantgirl]

avan wrote:
Before getting on your high horse OP, you should know that a Cashiers Check is not money, is not cash. It is just an institutional promise to pay (ck) rather than a personal promise to pay (ck) and both can be phony as h... Cash is cash. Guessing seller advertised it for sale for "$xxxx.xx" and not for "a check of $xxxx.xx". Then it sounds like he reiterated his terms for cash during the phone call with you and you decided that rather than getting the cash from the CU and bringing it to the seller, you'd just join up here and rant. Sorry. Seller has the right to ask whatever terms he wants and you have the right to accept or not. As a seller, I would never do a private party sale to an individual or to a company, for paper promises. Cash only or a wire transfer to my bank with my bank confirming to me that it is deposited to my account. Buyer doesn't like those terms = take a hike.

I'm not on a high horse. Guess you didn't read where I explained that my CU wouldn't give me cash; they would only do a cashier's check. And you really truly need to work on your reading comprehension because it wasnt a phone call. We met in person and he agreed to the CC. Then THE NEXT DAY he emailed that he wouldn't take it and before I could even reply to his email to try to work it out, he emailed again saying he was going to show it to someone else and sell it to them if they had cash DESPITE the verbal agreement we had and (half-assed) bill of sale he had made out to me. It was just a sh*tty way to treat me after I'd driven so far to look at it. You'd be pissed too.

[Ductape]

rockhillmanor wrote:

Ductape wrote:
There's no risk of receiving a bad check if you go to the institution it's drawn on and cash it. The funds are going to be verified before they count out the cash.

Which the OP was prepared to do with the seller.

Yes there IS a risk.
First of all What's wrong with that scenario is banks today will NOT let you cash a check on a bank that you do not have an account with. Thank the patriot act for that one.

AND if you are going to his bank to cash it, you can go to his bank WITH him and he can draw out CASH. If legit there is no reason for him to write you a check. :R

Roll your eyes all you want, you're still confused about the difference between bank policy and law. And if you'd comprehended the OP, you'd know it's the proceeds of a credit union loan, not the OP's cash backing the check.

[qtla9111]

Come on everybody, let´s gang up on her and prove she´s not right in the head.

There are no safe transactions these days. In a negociation, both seller and buyer have to meet half way. If not, the deal is off.

To bad for the seller, he looked a gift horse in the mouth and now has it up for sale again. Had he been willing to work with the buyer both would have been happy.

I´m for the buyer on this one.

[avan]

Chum lee wrote:
Nothing is for sure these days. IMO, a wire transfer is the safest way to transfer money. At the speed of light, you can confirm that the money was sent from your account. The recipient can confirm that the money has arrived in their account. It's usually best to execute transactions during business hours so there are bank people to talk to if there are issues.

Carrying large amounts of cash (over $10,000) is dangerous. Some (police) states can legally confiscate cash just because they THINK you are up to something nefarious. It happens all the time.

Chum lee

Not quite right. Yes the transfer itself is fast but then it breaks down. WT from bank to bank is initiated. A person or an electronic app has to debit your account. Your instructions are to send it to institution "X" that has routing number of "Y" for further credit to recipient "A", account # "B" (or in person upon presentation of proper identication). So if the 2 institutions are not correspondent banks (i.e., Bank X and Bank Y have bank clearing accounts with each other (doubtful when the buyer and seller are 89 miles apart) then the wire will be routed through the Federal Reserve bank appropriate to the district (in the OPs case, District 7, I think). Then Fed Res's accounting system debits the sending bank and credits the recipient bank and notice goes in the queue for the recipient bank. When recipient bank gets around to looking for FRS credits for the day, it will see that there is a credit for customer (seller) account number and then function a credit to that account number. Most of this process takes people noticing that something electronic has happened and then, following your instruction, moving it on to the next stage. So the transfers are lightning fast. The people functioning each stage are not.

If one institution is small, the person handling wire transfers might be out to lunch, might be in the middle of taking a loan application. Then the recipient after checking with his institution has to rely on that wire transfer dept to physically credit his account and notify him. In actuality, wire transfers often take several hours from sending to notification that the $ is there. WT have to be instituted prior to 3 pm for same day credit. Good part of the WT is that it is a safe way to physically transfer money in one day with no chance, once credited to the recipient'a account of there being a stop payment/reversal.

Face to face purchase - Cash is king. And don't do what someone on another current thread and that is pay cash to a dealer and leave with just the RV. One is buying the RV AND the title. She is still waiting. Get the signed off, including liens, title and make sure it gets to the DMV.